Dust Effect
by Sculla
Summary: Crossover of Mass Effect and His Dark Materials. Post-Reaper War the crew of the Normandy and their daemons must rebuilt.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:**_** Prompt: His Dark Materials/Mass Effect crossover; Normandy crew and co all have daemons. As I mentioned on the meme I've already picked everyone's daemons I just have to write them into the story. **_

Kaidan flopped face down onto the stretcher in the makeshift bedroom and groaned as his muscles protested at the movement.

"You should have stopped hours ago." Ira murmured as she jumped up beside his head and curled into his neck with a large yawn.

"Mmm." Kaidan responded drowsily as he twisted his arm to wrap around the desert fox and pull her closer.

"He isn't the only one who should have stopped hours ago."

Kaidan lifted his head slightly and turned to see Medera slinking into the room looking exhausted. She crossed the floor and jumped up besides the biotic causing the stretcher to creak distressingly.

"What are you doing?" Ira cried in alarm as she tensed in preparation to jump off in case the stretcher collapsed.

"I plan on sleeping." Medera growled before she draped herself over Kaidan's back and closed her eyes.

"Here?" Ira demanded with an affronted look at the larger creature.

"She's fine, pup." Kaidan said as he ran a soothing hand through the little fox's fur. "It's Shepard you have to worry about; if he decides he's sleeping here too the bed will definitely collapse."

Ira sniffed in annoyance but rolled her head into Kaidan's touches. "Stupid cat." She muttered under her breath as she snugged back down into her master's neck.

Medera opened one large golden eye and gave the smaller daemon a look. "I could eat you with one bite, fox." She warned before closing her eye once more.

"I hope I give you indigestion." Ira snapped back before quieting when Kaidan tapped the end of her nose in reprimand.

"Sleep." The biotic ordered sluggishly. Ira sighed but nevertheless did as ordered and laid her head down and buried it underneath her bushy tail before closing her dark eyes. Satisfied that his daemon had listened, Kaidan closed his eyes once more and dropped off to sleep. There was a brief moment of blessed silence until it was broken by the sound of the door opening with a creak and someone cursing softly at the noise.

Medera gave a low growl of annoyance and the person froze in the doorway. "Leave him 'lone, 'dera." Kaidan muttered as he lightly reached back and swatted the cougar on his back. "You can come in, Joker." He added with a wide yawn.

The pilot shot the giant cat a wary look before he shuffled into the room; his daemon curled around his shoulders already fast asleep. He paused by the edge of the stretcher and hesitated before reaching up and gently pulling Dana from his shoulder and looking down at the Kaidan biting his lip unsurely. Their relationship was only a few weeks old and Joker wasn't sure whether or not he was welcome into the bed pile. If it was the Commander, Joker wouldn't have hesitated in the least but this thing with Kaidan and Ira was new.

Kaidan rolled to the side, dislodging Medera from her claimed position and forcing the big cat to growl in annoyance before she shuffled further down so that she lay across the biotic's legs. "Come 'ere." Kaidan murmured to the pilot with a gesture.

Joker hesitantly handed his sleeping daemon to Kaidan before lowering himself cautiously onto the stretcher and lying in the spot vacated by the biotic. Kaidan smiled sleepily and placed Dana back on the pilot's chest before draping an arm across Joker's abdomen. Medera snorted softly and lay her head across Joker's ankles and fell back to sleep. Ira; not wanting to be left out, squirmed out from between Kaidan and the pillow and clambered over her master's back and into the tiny space between the two men before curling into a little ball and dozing off.

All in all it was an adorable scene, one which Commander Shepard could only agree on when he finally stumbled into the room exhausted several hours later. He smiled softly at the sight and when Medera sleepily raised her head to look at him he gestured for her to stay where she was and moved across the room and to lie down on a vacant stretcher, moments later he was also asleep.

John woke slowly. Something heavy was lying on his chest but not so much that he found it difficult to breath. Something soft and warm was also tickling his left cheek and he couldn't feel his legs. Opening his eyes he looked down and found Dana sprawled across his chest; her arms and legs askew. Medera was making her large weight known by cutting off the circulation to his lower extremities and as he turned his head he found Ira's little body curled up in the spot between his shoulder and jaw. Obviously some time during the night the daemons had decided that they wanted to keep him company instead of the other two men and jumped ship so to speak.

John glanced across the room and grinned at the sight of his lovers entangled on the small stretcher. Kaidan had managed to worm one leg in between Joker's and had curled a socked foot around the other's calf. One arm was wrapped tightly around the pilot's waist with his hand between Joker's t-shirt and abdomen and his face was tucked into the back of the pilot's neck. Both of them were still sound asleep, and John took the time to just watch them lying in peace.

Raising a hand slowly, John gently brushed his fingers through the soft hair covering the Gray-Shanked douc sleeping on his chest. He saw Joker sigh absently at the touch and smiled softly. To be able to touch another's daemon with no ill effects was extremely personal; it was something that only occurred between lovers and close knit families. The fact that Ira had crawled into bed to sleep with him showed how much Kaidan thought of him. The biotic had only become part of his and Joker's newfound partnership a few weeks ago and initially the little desert fox skittishly avoided coming into contact with him at all.

John recalled that a few days into the relationship Ira had jumped up and settled into Joker's lap while he and Kaidan were visiting him at the helm; it was an action that had made John absurdly bitter for hours. It was the Lieutenant who eventually cornered John several hours later in the port observatory. He had entered the room with Ira in his arms and eyeing Medera warily as she snarled at their entrance from her position sprawled across the floor beside the window. Not saying a word Kaidan had calmly placed the little fox onto the bench John was leaning on before turning and hesitantly leaning forward to brush his lips across John's own. Shepard being who is was of course pulled the biotic closer and deepened the kiss, earning a moan from the Major. He had almost jumped out of his skin when something small and warm landed in his lap and he had looked down to see Ira staring up at him with something akin to amusement in her large amber eyes. "Don't think you're special." She had declared smartly before jumping down to the ground and approaching Medera; who was almost ten times her size fearlessly and with determination marking her stride. "Cat." She acknowledged imperiously before audaciously curling up beside the cougar. John had felt the mixture of indignation and amusement coming from Medera and had to smile; although she didn't mind Kaidan joining their family, Medera hadn't so sure about his upstart little daemon.

Obviously they had worked out their differences, John thought as he looked down at the daemons surrounding him. With the end of the galaxy so near, John had never felt as loved as he did then. The only thing that could improve it was having Joker and Kaidan beside him too. A soft knock on the door interrupted his musings and he looked up to see Liara hesitantly peering into the room. "Hey." He greeted softly.

Liara's eyes widened at the sight of him half buried in daemons and she shot a surprised look toward the two sleeping men on the other stretcher. "Oh!" she gasped in shock. It was only then that Shepard realised that although everyone knew of his and Joker's relationship, it wasn't general knowledge that Kaidan was also involved.

"Don't act so surprised, Liara." An amused voice said from near the Asari's feet.

Liara glanced down at her daemon who had hopped further into the room while she remained in the doorway. "Although I suspected, Aleios, I was not sure." She scolded gently.

"Some Shadow Broker you are." The squirrel-like creature scoffed in amusement. "I told you that the pilot smelt like biotics but would you believe me?"

Medera raised her head and glared down at the fluffy creature imperiously. "Is that a problem?" She growled.

Aleios froze as the cougar's eyes fell on him and he trembled minutely until Liara bent down to pick him up. "No it is not, Medera." Liara answered for them both with a raised eyebrow. "Now if you have had your fun, EDI says that Admiral Anderson wants to speak with you and the Major at your earliest convenience, Shepard."

Shepard sighed before nodding absently. "Ok, thanks. Tell him we'll be there in a ten minutes."

Liara nodded in reply before shooting an unreadable look in the direction of the other two men and leaving the room with Aleios in tow.

Sighing once more Shepard gently lift Dana off his chest and to the side before sitting up and kicking his numb legs to get his own daemon off. Medera snarled softly at the action but lay back down to return to sleep almost immediately afterward. John rolled his eyes at the action and scooped Ira up gently in his hands. Across the room Kaidan twitched awake and rolled onto his back with a sleepy confused frown. "We got a meeting with Anderson in ten." John told the biotic as he handed the man's daemon back to him and made his way to the showers.

Kaidan blinked several times in confusion before the words filtered into his sleepy mind. "Right." He replied with a wide yawn as he brushed at his eyes with his free hand in an attempt to wake himself up. Gently extracting his other hand from underneath the still sleeping pilot he dropped his feet to the floor and pushed himself up. He stood blankly for a few seconds until the sound of water running signalled his need for a shower and he shot a look over his shoulder to see Shepard already stripping down and entering the shower. Ira twitched in his arms at the action and nipped him gently on the wrist in warning. "Don't get any ideas; John said ten minutes not an hour."

Kaidan looked down at his daemon with a sheepish grin. "I'll try." He replied before turning and placing her on the spot he had just vacated and heading toward the shower.

_**AN: The cougar was picked because I felt that it suited a Paragade Shepard perfectly; independent, a strong creature and very protective of its family. Joker got the Gray-shanked Douc because i could see him having a daemon that represented his inner self; cheeky, sarcastic and something that would be energetic (when not dead tired lol) and able to move around freely. I could have picked a bird due to him being a pilot but I didn't want him to have a bird. Kaidan's daemon was picked mostly because I adore the hell out of the Fennec Fox. It's super cute with its tiny body and big ears. But since I kind of made Ira such a sassy little thing I picture her as being Kaidan's internal emotions and the opposite of his usually cool, calm and collected exterior…or at least that's what I'm going with lol. **_

_***EDIT: Liara's daemon: Apologies but changed it ever-so-slightly, I found the perfect creature for her on the net (a cross between a squirrel and an alligator believe it or not) obviously someone with Photoshop had too much time on their hands but BOOM alien squirrely-thing for Liara's daemon. I can't remember exactly what the artist called it, but I think it was something like Squirrigator or some conglomeration of Squirrel and Alligator if anyone wanted to see the actually image of it. So all in all: not an alien bunny but a squirrigator (still all fluffy and grey, no scales).**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**AN: New chapter, this one is mostly explaining the backstory of the ending in the reaper war. Oh and some intense angsty drama at the end.**_

Thirty minutes passed the time he was supposed to meet with Commander Shepard, Anderson shot another look toward the technician. "Are you sure the QEC is working?" he asked. The technician glanced at his controls before sending the admiral a nervous nod. David frowned then looked toward his daemon. "You think they have problems on their end?" he asked the otter.

Eva looked up from her dancing between the chair legs in the temporary command centre with a shrug. "Doubtful, the AI should have been able to fix it already."

Anderson was prevented from questioning it any further when the communicator opened and the image of the two Alliance officers appeared on the holographic projector.

"_Sorry we're late, Anderson." _Shepard greeted with a smile._ "We were…delayed unexpectedly."_

Anderson nodded accepting the excuse; it tended to happen on a battleship. The slight cough from the Major at Shepard's excuse caused him to raise an eyebrow, however he made no further comment on it and got down to business. "How is Vancouver faring Commander?" he asked.

"_As good as to be expected."_ Shepard answered. "_The Reapers hit it pretty hard."_

Anderson noted the sad look that flickered across Alenko's face at the news and he remembered that the man was from the Canadian city. "We seem to be faring as well as could be here in London too." He stated. "Resources are running a little low with so many races stuck here until we get the Relays working again. The main problem is food and medicine for the dextro races; the Quarian fleet is doing what it can with the it's liveships but if we don't get those Relays running in the next two months then we have a big problem." David explained.

"_I can imagine."_ Shepard returned. _"Tali mentioned something along those lines last time we spoke. The Geth have sent several platforms your way to help jumpstart the Relay work, they should have arrived…yesterday?" _he said hesitantly with a look to Kaidan for confirmation.

The major nodded in reply. _"The Rachni Queen is also planning to send a few drones tomorrow. Hackett mentioned they worked well with some of our engineers."_ He added.

Anderson nodded at the report; he had expected the two estranged races to lend a hand. _"The Geth arrived yesterday afternoon and we set them to work on the Charon Relay almost immediately._" Eva jumped up onto the pedestal next to Anderson as he talked and eyed the two holographic men before her shrewdly.

"You're banging each other." She declared loudly when Anderson paused for breath. The silence after that statement was almost deafening.

"…"

Anderson closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose with a hand. There were times that he hated Daemons for having the ability to talk; they often spoke their minds in the most inopportune moments. He looked up to the hologram and prepared to apologise but he caught the wide eyed and panicked look Alenko was sending Shepard. Great, they were 'banging' each other; what a nightmare.

"Oh, don't try to deny it; the Major has a hickey the size of England on his neck." Eva continued, oblivious of the trouble she was getting the two men in.

"_Eva…" _Kaidan began slowly.

"Yes?"

"_Kindly, shut up."_ The major demanded before turning to Shepard and sending him a death glare as he rubbed at his neck. _"A hickey! Really, what are you? Fifteen?"_

Shepard just grinned back in reply. _"Can't help if I wanna mark my territory."_ He joked before sending Anderson a smug look. "_Technically Kaidan and I are still Spectres, so the Alliance has no authority over our actions."_

Anderson sighed and rubbed at his forehead again; he was going to get a headache from dealing with Shepard…again. "As Council Spectres, the Alliance cannot do anything against you for breaking fraternization regulations. But please keep it low, Shepard. Anderson out." David replied before cutting the link to the pair and sending a stern look toward his daemon. "Eva, you are a part of me and I love you dearly, but please refrain from speaking your mind when in company."

The otter rolled her dark eyes and scampered to the ground once more and followed the admiral as he left the communications room. "Oh please, like you don't know that there is a pool running on how long it would take for those two to hook up." Eva drawled before shooting the marine a smug look. "I have it on good authority that the odds are four to three that it will become public next week Wednesday, want me to place a bet?"

"Eva…"

"Fine…Ever since that failed mission with that idiot Turian, you've been such a downer."

"Eva!"

* * *

After Anderson cut the communication Kaidan spun around and hit Shepard on the shoulder; hard. "Are you crazy?" The biotic yelled angrily.

The Commander stepped back and rubbed his shoulder gingerly, Kaidan could pack a mean punch when he wanted. John was pretty sure that was going to leave a bruise; even with the heavy skin weave lattice he got while working with Cerberus. "You're only just realising that now?" he joked.

Evidently it had been the wrong thing to say as Kaidan scoffed and looked away with a shake of his head. "You're unbelievable." He growled.

Shepard paused and eyed the angry man before him; clearly he was missing something here. "Kaidan-" he began only to be cut off.

"Don't you Kaidan me, Shepard." The biotic snapped with a slight flare of biotics. "God, do you even think about the consequences of your actions? You just told Anderson, an Admiral of the Alliance that we were breaking the fraternization regulations! We could be dismissed for that!"

"How can you say that?" John demanded angrily. Of course he thought about the consequences of his actions, what he had been forced to do on Torfan, in the Bahak system, even Virmire still haunted him to this day.

The beginnings of the argument had brought Ira scampering through into the communications room where she brushed up against her master's foot in agitation. Medera prowled into the room shortly afterward and sent a snarl in the biotic's direction as he moved to Shepard's side.

Kaidan paid no attention to the cougar's warning and jabbed a finger toward Commander. "This isn't only my career you're playing with, Shepard. Has it even occurred to you that Joker doesn't have the same Spectre shield to hide behind as we do?" Seeing the realisation crossing the marine's face, Kaidan shook his head and laughed bitterly. "Of course it didn't."

"They won't throw Joker out of the Alliance." John declared certainly.

"Are you sure about that?" Kaidan asked forcefully. "They've already grounded him twice, what's to stop them from grounding him now? A crippled pilot who has a history with a terrorist organization, there's no war now so there's no need for him any longer."

"Kaidan…" Ira began softly from her position by the biotic's feet.

Kaidan felt a small surge of guilt run through him at Ira's reprimand; Joker was important to him and he'd just spoke ill of the man.

"_Wow…Kaidan, I…I never expected that from you, of all people."_

Kaidan paled as Joker's hurt voice came over the loudspeaker. Shit, he had heard that too. "Joker, I didn't mean…" he trailed off unsure of how to continue.

"Of course you didn't." Medera sneered.

Kaidan glanced helplessly at the daemon then at the Commander. John was looking at him with a mixed expression of guilt and anger and the biotic turned away and ran a hand through his dark hair roughly. This had been blown completely out of proportion and in his anger at John he had managed to hurt the pilot too.

"An apology wouldn't go amiss." Shepard suggested crossing his arms and looking toward the other man.

Kaidan felt a surge of anger at the words. Of course he was going to apologise! "I'll go see him now." He muttered softly.

John shifted and sent an annoyed look toward him, twined with a growl form Medera. "He's not the only one who deserves an apology." He said.

Kaidan stiffened and glared at the Commander. "Seriously?" he demanded. "_You_ want an apology from _me?_ God, nothing I've said has sunk into you're thick skull has it?" he snapped before spinning away and storming out of the room.

Shepard blinked in surprise before anger crossed his face and he moved to go after the upset biotic. However Ira darting forward to block his path stopped him and he sent an annoyed look toward the tiny fox. He stepped back in surprise when the little daemon pulled back her lips and snarled viciously at him; her large ears flattened against her skull. "Back off!" she growled.

The action caused Medera to act and she stepped forward and towered over the tiny creature with a snarl. "Watch yourself, puppy!"

Amazingly Ira didn't back down but jumped forward and nipped the cat on the nose. "I'm not the one who should watch herself!" she snapped before spinning and hightailing it out of the room and after Kaidan before the astonished cougar could react.

_**AN: Dun dun dun! The drama! Anyway on the daemon update: Anderson = River Otter for a reason I cannot remember right now…my bad. Also I probably didn't even write his character right so I figure it doesn't mean much as this is probably the only time you'll see him and Eva.**_

_**Also on a side note, I'm up for reviewers requesting daemon names. There's still 9 boy names and 7 girl names to be picked. Keep in mind though that I'm writing this fairly quickly so if you want a name put in you'll have to be quick. **_


	3. Chapter 3

_**AN: I live! Sorry about the long time between updates, I was in Australia for a couple of weeks with no access to the internet (I cried) but also the plot bunnies ran away and hid in the CoD and Halo universes for a while, but I nevertheless wrangled them back into the ME universe and to this story and got them to co-operate once more. And after re-reading my last posts for this story I found some flaws in my author notes so fixed those up too (lol at the references to Steve and James, I forgot I had cut them out of that scene :P but they and their daemons will be back in another one). And in case no one realises, each new update will include a flashback scene and a continuation of the actual present scene. Anyways, sorry for the shortness but enjoy!**_

***Flashback***

It was Ashley's idea surprisingly. They had docked back at the Citadel several hours earlier after the miserable mission on Noveria and after updating the Council on the latest the crew had stood milling around at a loss for what to do while the Normandy restocked. That was when Ashley suggested getting plastered at Flux; after a surprised silence everyone unanimously agreed and headed toward the nightclub.

Kaidan was dutifully keeping the swaying Commander on his feet whilst simultaneously restraining the man from making his way onto the dance floor. The last time they had given the soldier free rein they had regretted it the instant the man started flailing like a demented jellyfish; Ashley and Kaidan had shared a look and immediately dragged the man back before it made front page news. The pair had formed an unspoken agreement to keep it from ever happening again.

"We shoul' dans!"

Kaidan grimaced at the shout in his ear and shot his commander a flat look. "No." he stated firmly. "We really shouldn't."

"Bu's fun!"

"I'd rather fight a pack of hungry Varren in my birthday suit armed with nothing but a spoon, Commander." Kaidan replied with a sigh. He watched with amusement as Shepard's face screwed up as the man attempted to decipher the sentence in his drunken state before giving up and leaning heavily against the biotic with a gutsy sigh.

"Need a hand Lieutenant?"

Kaidan looked up from his mad scramble to keep both himself and Shepard on their feet to his left and spotted Ashley leaning against the wall with a smirk. "If you wouldn't mind." He ground out.

"'_Just a couple of drinks_' he said, _'I've got an image to uphold'"._ A voice growled sarcastically from waist height. Kaidan looked down to see Medera scowling up her master from underneath the table.

"'Dera!"

Kaidan winced as Shepard once against shouted in his ear as the intoxicated man spotted his Daemon; the biotic was then forced to stop the Commander from face planting into the ground as the man leaned forward to pat the cougar.

"John." Medera returned flatly as she leaned away from the hand. "You are drunk. I'm not talking to you until you sober up."

"That'll be a while."

"Ira…" Kaidan sighed in warning, although he knew his little fox had a point. Shepard had drunk enough to make even a Krogan tipsy. Ira rolled her eyes at the reprimand and sat by Kaidan's feet with a sigh.

"You were thinking it." She muttered rebelliously under her breath.

"Let's get him back to the Normandy before anyone sees him." Ash said as she stepped forward and wrapped the commander's free arm around her shoulders while Kaidan adjusted the other around his own.

"Ash!" Shepard declared with a lopsided grin as he spotted the Gunnery Chief. "Wanna dans?"

Kaidan barely supressed a smirk of his own as Ashley blanched at the offer and shook her head vehemently. "No thanks, Skipper." She said. "I think it's better off if we get you into bed."

There was a pregnant pause which was broken by Kaidan snorting in amusement then looking away from the embarrassed woman to hide his grin. "Classy." Ira drawled sarcastically.

"I didn't mean it that way!" Ashley defended red faced at her mistake.

"It's ok Ash; it was an easy mistake to make." The Chief gave her Daemon a relieved look before sending a glare toward Kaidan, which was why she missed the Jack Russell hiding his snout under his paw in a dog version of a face palm. "Thank you, Diogenes."

"Ash…you're not…reaallly my type." Shepard slurred, a little slow on the uptake due to the amount of alcohol in his system.

The two marine's stopped and looked toward the intoxicated man; Ashley with an expression which was a mixture of embarrassment and poorly hidden regret and Kaidan with what he hoped was a perfectly blank face and not a relieved one.

"Oh we are not starting this again." Medera growled as she stood up and moved to stand just before her master. The cougar then pushed up onto her rear legs and placed her large paws either side of Shepard's head and lightly dug in her claws to get the man's attention. " .bed…alone." she ordered out slowly.

Shepard's eyes blinked several times before he cautiously nodded his head. "Okay." He answered softly. Apparently satisfied at the commander's obedience to her order, Medera dropped back down and began to weave her way through the crowd partygoers and their daemons back to the Normandy.

Ashley and Kaidan exchanged surprised looks before they shrugged and followed the daemon back to the ship, dragging their subdue Commander between them.

* * *

_***Present***_

Kaidan scowled viscously at the ground as he stalked through the ruin streets. Of all the stupid things John had done this had to be one of the stupidest; jumping him in the showers and making them late for the meeting with Anderson he could forgive but outing their relationship to a superior officer? It took the usually calm biotic all he had to not punch the other man in the face.

Growling, Kaidan kicked a chunk of fallen concrete sending it bouncing down the road to thunk against a partially destroyed wall. And then he had to stupid insult Joker without meaning to, an insult that the pilot had overheard; even though he shouldn't have been eavesdropping in the first place.

"Kaidan, wait up!"

The biotic shot an annoyed look over his shoulder at the desert fox that was scrambling over the fallen debris in an attempt to catch up. He ignored the call and turned back to continue walking as he absently rubbed his chest to ease the ache that was forming due to the separation from his daemon. Ira was barely fifty feet away from Kaidan, but the pair never really formed the usual separation tolerance that most marines developed during basic training. Kaidan thought it might have been due to Vyrnnus' radical techniques during Jump Zero where the Turian Commander would separate the humans from their daemons until they could perform biotics to his satisfaction. As a result Ira never left his side and Kaidan could learn new biotics astonishingly quick.

Vancouver was still a mass of destroyed and partially ruined buildings and the roads were littered with fallen debris, burnt out vehicles and temporary barriers which made moving through them difficult. Still, it didn't stop Kaidan from getting as far away as he could from the Normandy; landed in any empty car park of a mall that had been made into a FOB. He was several blocks away before he came to a halt besides a partially destroyed four storey building. Leaning against the wall Kaidan sank down until he was sitting on the dust covered ground with his forearms resting on his knees. A few moments later and Ira had joined him, panting with exertion and scowling darkly at him.

"I barely come up to your knees; ergo I take smaller steps than you and find it difficult to climb over four foot high debris, slow down next time." She demanded before slumping down to the ground and resting her chin on Kaidan's hip.

Kaidan didn't respond but he did lower one hand down to pat the small fox on the head. The pair was silent for several minutes; Ira with her eyes closed enjoying the stroking hand and Kaidan staring off into the distance in deep thought. Eventually Kaidan broke the quiet, speaking softly. "I don't know what to do about John, Ira."

The little fox opened one eye, took in the depressed expression on her master's face and sighed, before she pushed up into a sitting position. "I snapped at him." she confessed.

Kaidan quirked his lips at the reply but didn't take his eyes off the horizon. "I did too."

Ira hunched guiltily. "I mean I literally snapped at him…I might have nipped Medera's nose too."

That got a reaction from the biotic who jerked his head to look down at the fox in surprise. "You did what?" he exclaimed.

"She was being a bitch!" Ira cried defensively.

"Ira that's…you can't just…" Kaidan trailed off helplessly before sighing and thumping his head back against the wall behind him. "She's going to murder you." He stated honestly.

Kaidan felt the little fox shrug against his side at the declaration. "Won't be the first time she tried." She admitted. "John will stop her."

"You hope." Kaidan replied softly with a voice filled with regret.

Ira looked up at him sadly before climbing up into his lap and curling into a little ball. "Yeah." She conceded equally as softly.

* * *

_AN: Nawq, ending on a sad moment. In regards to Ashley's daemon, a Jack Russell Terrier seemed like a good fit for her; a fiery, yappy dog that is fiercely loyal and kinda annoying :P and I had to name him after a Greek Philosopher because that fit with Ashley's love of the classics…also since I have no idea, do people actually get to name their daemons, or does the daemon tell them their name?_


End file.
